GEORGE
ALMON MUNGER was born in Elkins Park PA on June 24, 1909 to Mr. and Mrs.
Herbert Munger. He was a descendant of George A. Munger, who was a
prominent Camden businessman, involved in lumber, real estate, and who
founded the Munger & Long Department Store at Broadway and
Federal
Street. Shortly after his birth, the Munger family moved to 420 Cooper
Street in Camden. Herbert Munger and his brother Clarence were at the
time partnered in the department store with Elmer E. Long.

George
Almon Munger spent his early years in Camden, attending the local
Friends School. His high school years were spent in Pennsylvania, where
he starred in football, basketball, and track.

On
January 19, 1938 George Munger was named head coach of the University of
Pennsylvania football team. His 16 year career was quite successful, as
he compiled a 52-7-4 record within the Ivy League, winning 84 games
overall, and developed no less than 14 All-American players, including
four-time All-American George
Savitsky.

After
George Almon retired as coach, he served for many years as the Penn
athletic director, and Professor of Physical Education. After the 1953
season, Penn, as a new member of the Ivy League, decided to de-emphasize
football, and the glory days of Penn football were over.

George
Almon Munger passed away in 1994.

The
Maxwell Football Club in Philadelphia awards the annual George Munger
Award for College Coach of the Year in his honor.

George Munger

When
World War I ended, George Almon Munger was a little boy. But
by the time World War II was over, Goerge Almon Munger was halfway
to the Hall of Fame.

Munger took over as Penn's head football
coach in 1939. He compiled a 52-7-4 Ivy League record over the
next 16 years, creating a monstrous group of Quakers that left
fans fighting for tickets at Franklin field, boosting Penn to the
nation's top spot in football attendance.

Thanks to a single-wing offense and a
disciplined defense, Penn would win the Ivy League's mythical
title nine times during Munger's tenure and 16 players, including
Chuck Bednarik and Reds Bagnell, would be named All-Americans.

While Munger coached at Penn, three of
his players went on to win the Maxwell Award. They were: Robert H.
Odell (1943), Charles (Chuck) Bednarik (1948) and Francis J.
(Reds) Bagnell (1950).

"When I was 15, I knew I wanted to
be a coach," Munger once said. He credited his high school
coach, Lambert F. Whetstone, with installing that interest in him.
Whetstone coached at Episcopal Academy, where Munger captained the
football team in 1928 and 1929.

Episcopal just happened to win every game
and a pair of Interac championships those two seasons. Munger
added those titles to three others his teams won at Episcopal --
two in basketball and one in baseball. He knew his way around
Episcopal's track as well, setting school records in the
pole-vault, high jump, discus and javelin.

As a student-athlete at Penn, Munger
starred as a half-back and fullback in the Quakers' backfield. But
he carved his place into Franklin field lore by winning the
decathlon at the 1931 Penn Relays.

After graduating from Penn in 1933,
Munger returned to Episcopal to coach football and track and teach
Math and Sacred Studies. He stayed there until 1936. That's when
he went back to Penn to coach the Quakers' freshman track and
football squads until he became head football coach three years
later.

When his coaching career ended in 1954,
Munger became director and professor of the University of
Pennsylvania's Department of Physical Education.

Among George Almon Munger's countless
awards is an honorary Doctors of Law Degree from his alma mater.
In the presentation of that degree, the Trustees of the University
of Pennsylvania called Munger "an angel with a single wing
who soared into the record books."

The Maxwell Football Club honors that
heavenly coach by making his coaching success, his devotion to
ethics in athletics, and his commitment to education the standard
for which all college coaches should strive.